My name is Ashley Sohlman, and I have been seeking to find the "why" behind data for my entire life. I have never been content to simply know what is; I want to know the story behind how it came to be that way.

My goal is to apply my innate curiosity to helping organizations make data-driven decisions that go deeper than looking at the trendline of a graph. Anyone can see whether the line is trending up or down. It takes a deeper analysis and creative thinking to figure out what caused the trend.

In my former career as a teacher, I used data to inform my decisions on everything from how to respond when a child had challenging behavior to what interventions were best to use based on an analysis of error patterns on an assessment. After the 2021-22 school year, I realized that my passion truly lay in solving the puzzle behind data. I took a leap of faith, brushed up on my Excel skills, added new skills in SQL and R, and decided to transition to a new career as a data analyst.

Teachers are often asked, "What's your 'why'?" Now, my "why" is to help organizations answer that same question for their data.